Over at Hispanic Nashville, Eva Melo sounds the alarm for the Hispanic community to publicly proclaim their intolerance for drunk driving, robbery, gang-banging, and tax fraud. Why not child rape, too, Eva? I mean, I’m firmly against that. Puppy torture? No way, Jose. I’m agin it. I really think she needs to include more crimes in her list of things we in the Hispanic community should denounce, I’d hate to miss one, and cause my American born neighbors undue fear.

It’s demeaning, and damn disrespectful to ask any single community to publicly announce that they are against crime. Those that hate will never be convinced, and reasonable people already know that any sane person is opposed to senseless killing. To think otherwise makes me believe Eva is a tad late to this party.

I have no desire to pander to, or unduly appease frightened Nativists.

23 responses to “Chamber Head Panics About Immigrant Backlash”

But Mack, don’t you know? America never had drunks who drove until your kind came to us from down south. You guys started it! I mean, really…the fact that the drunk who killed my dad was African-American was just a fluke…it’s all the fault of the “brown people”.

Furthermore, my grandfather contracted TB. He caught it in a coal mine in Kentucky back in the 40s. But, again, that was just a fluke. How do I know? Because Steve Gill told me this morning that it’s your kind bringing it here, so it must be true!

It’s such a relief to know that the Hispanic Community has finally come to their senses to realize that they owe it to us to be “on record” about crime being bad, etc. …because everybody knows it’s all their fault anyway.

As I posted over at Hispanic News: There are two issues here.
1) There is the statistical position that drunken driving is a greater problem in the Hispanic Community or not. I’ve seen Stats that say it is, but I can not verify their accuracy.
2) There is the political aspect, which is, whether it IS a greater problem or not, if there is a perception that it is, then it is just smart to take control of the issue. I don’t view this as demeaning. I view it as savvy.

Not that DUI is terrorism, but isn’t there a common complaint that the peaceful, moderate muslim community doesn’t speak out against muslim terrorism?

I don’t know. Maybe it’s just me, but I would (and do) have more respect for a community that takes charge of itself. I also don’t view that as admitting that all Hispanics are drunk drivers, which seems to be the fear.

I’ll try to find the stats. I thought I had couched them in enough weasal words to say that I’m not using them as an argument.

Ex, you are missing the point, I think. We are a part of THIS community. Your community. Why seperate us out? I don’t expect all the Irish to issue a press release when some guy named Fitzpatrick slams into a bus load of nuns, whats the difference?

Oh, welcome to The Chronicles, btw, I generally try and acknowledge new arrivals. Your presence is celebrated!

From http://www.recordnet.com
» The DUI arrest rate for Latinos in Raleigh, N.C., is 45 percent, while they account for only 8 percent of the population, said Eric Siervo, a public-policy manager at the National Latino Council on Alcohol and Tobacco Prevention in Washington.

» Latinos account for 43 percent of DUI arrests in Texas but only 32 percent of the population, according to the Texas Department of Public Safety.

» “The Spanish-speaking population makes up 41 percent of Miami’s citizenship and is overrepresented in death and injury caused by impaired-driving crashes,” said Susan Isenberg, president of the Miami-Dade Chapter of Mothers Against Drunk Driving.

“It’s a cultural thing. Unfortunately, most have to find out the hard way that things are much different here,” said Stockton Police Officer Martin Gonzalez, a bilingual traffic officer who added it’s not uncommon for a Latino man to down a 12-pack of beer on a weekend night.
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Perhaps because Irish drunkenness isn’t a problem in TN. It is where I’m from. There are tons of Micks and they drive drunk a lot. And guess what? Nobody talks about drunk Hispanics there; they talk about drunk Micks and how the Irish community needs to change its attitude about DUI.
My point is that I’m not slamming the Hispanic community, and don’t tell me there isn’t a hispanic community, or y’all wouldn’t have your own Chronicles webpage.

» “The Spanish-speaking population makes up 41 percent of Miami’s citizenship and is overrepresented in death and injury caused by impaired-driving crashes,” said Susan Isenberg, president of the Miami-Dade Chapter of Mothers Against Drunk Driving.

“It’s a cultural thing. Unfortunately, most have to find out the hard way that things are much different here,” said Stockton Police Officer Martin Gonzalez, a bilingual traffic officer who added it’s not uncommon for a Latino man to down a 12-pack of beer on a weekend night.

Exador, please give me statistics on the percentage of those 41% are undocumented immigrants.

Now we’re lumping all Hispanics into one category. In Miami, they are Cubans, most of whom have been in this country for generations.

Drunk driving and immigration should not be lumped together as issues. One clouds the other.

It also another way to stir up emnity toward the Mexican ethnicity from the hatemongers.

Oh, by the way, my dad, who was killed by an African American drunk driver, was killed in Miami.

I agree that the “Hispanic Community” shouldn’t have to apologize whenever a Hispanic person does something bad.

Having said that, I do think its a good idea for Hispanic community to lead efforts to teach new-coming immigrants about the danger of DUIs.

Perhaps I’m overstepping, but I imagine that there are many immigrants from smaller, rural communities who are coming to the United States and are being channeled towards more Urban areas. Now, in a smaller rural area with fewer cars on the roads, the dangers of driving intoxicated might be lessened (or at least appear that way) compared to more congested traffic areas.

I’ve been out to Mt. Juliet a few times where the guys (good ol’ redneck Americans) drive around with a half-empty twelve pack of some shit beer, while going house to house to see their friends to catch portions of “the race”.

Perhaps this same attitude is prevalent in rural communities in Mexico, and the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce or whatever group, would be wise to make sure they speak to their constituents in a language they understand, about why its dangerous to drink and drive here.

It might simply carry more weight to have Hispanic leaders, speaking in their native language about it; rather than some paternalistic white politician having subtitles underneath a TV ad.

Oh, and being of Irish decent, I know all about the unfair stereotypes of drunken Irish…well…unfair to some; I’m a pretty big lush myself.

Wait, wait, wait. I turn my back for two seconds and Exador, Exador, is spouting off about “If there is a perception that this is a greater problem in the Hispanic community than I think it’s just smart to take control of the issue.”

Folks, my work here is done.

Exador, I eagerly await your blog post in which you address all men about their need to speak out about rape. After all, it’s a common perception (and I have the statistics to back it up with) that men commit far, far more rapes than women.

Or your blog post again addressing all men about their need to speak out about wife-beating. After all, again, common perception that men are much more likely to beat their wives than women are.

Shoot, are you going to apologize for U.S. slavery? After all, it’s a common perception that white folks, of which you are one, owned slaves.

And, hell, when are you Irish folks going to take some responsibility for Michael Flatley?

Whew, I could kiss you on the mouth, Exador, I’m so glad to see you coming around to a feminist perspective, though I’ll admit I’m startled to see you taking such a radical stance.

I don’t expect all the Irish to issue a press release when some guy named Fitzpatrick slams into a bus load of nuns, whats the difference?

Mack, there are two issues involved here, that I think you are conflating. One issue is whether all members of certain groups are, in this country (or in certain regions of this country) expected as the default to be responsible for the behavior of any of the group’s members (e.g. Muslims constantly being asked to disavow terrorism*). The other issue is whether asking this of all the members of a group is right.

Now, I’m with you on it being wrong, and I’m betting that Eva Melo is, too. But she’s also got to deal with the reality that it happens, and that it happens a lot to her own group right here. And she’s choosing to try to tackle that issue by saying “let’s our group be very publicly seen to combat the behavior involved in this perception.” And, in fact, the folks outside her group who are not motivated by ill-will will be largely persuaded by this approach, so it isn’t ill-advised; it will bring new allies against the perceptions.

Where her approach falls down, I think, is that it assumes that the people asking everyone in the group to be responsible are well-intentioned. And I don’t think that this is the case. I am myself a member of a group that is still asked, way beyond the bounds of sanity, to disavow or apologize for the behavior of all our members, and in fact for behaviors that our members don’t indulge in at all but are routinely accused of indulging in. So I know that the Melo approach doesn’t always work.

OTOH, I think that loudly shouting about Irish drunks might be a lot more helpful to her cause. Because, ya know, the one anti-social behavior that my group used to have some of its members engage in, rather flamboyantly, was organized crime. And, back in the day, this was known and held against us all. But we managed to yell loud enough that the Italians were worse, and today they’re still all walking around having to be defensive about the Mafia, but nobody asks us to apologize for Meyer Lansky. I’m just saying.

*There’s an additional problem that people tend to ignore them when they do, and then complain when they don’t, but this is complicated enough already.

Oh, and I would appreciate it if all migrants or passers-through from rural areas (like, say, Cheatham County) had to pass an urban driving exam before they were allowed to cross the county line. I’m just saying, again.

Good Lord, Here’s Mack and I having a very reasoned, wonderful discussion, and all you hens have to chime in and dilute the issue.

B, I hereby and publicly announce that I, and I think I speak for the larger male community, am against rape.

I think we should stick to current events, and leave historical wrongs out of this. In that light, I submit that, overwhelmingly, the slaves remaining in this country are enslaved by non-white human traffickers, who are generally either Hispanic or Asian. I await Mack’s statement of the Hispanic community’s stance on this.

Well, during feminist indoctrination time this morning we debated on whether to join in or just not worry our pretty little heads about it or to just chime in quick enough to offer free blowjobs to whomever wanted them. We couldn’t make up our minds so we flipped a coin.

Obviously, we won.

As for your slave trafficking, again, a crime committed mostly by men. I await your apology for this as well.